Does anyone trench compost?

[Anniekay]

If you're not aware of the term it is digging trenches in your garden and adding chopped up composted kitchen and other garden waste into the trench, approximately 10-12" deep, then covering it over. This is one of the methods I got from Ruth Stout's gardening book.

I love this method because when I dig down into it the next season, or pull up spent plants in fall, that that I added into the trench has decomposed into a black, rich soil. I got the most healthy tomato plants this year from growing them over my trenches. All the nutrition stays in your garden, there's no loss of nutrients from run off from rain and loss into the soil beneath the compost heap. That's what sold me on the method.

Anyone using this method and, if so, how do you like it? Or would anyone like to try it and see how it goes?

 

[Mystic Moon Tree]

I have tried it & also tried composting directly into planting pots as they are recommended as low effort methods. I just didn't like them because the compost goes through a wet swampy anaerobic rot down phase which can spread pathogens from like store bought food or maneurs into the soil bed permanently. The alcohols & fermentation gets high, it gets HOT & if you plant into it too soon (an experiment I purposely did) the plants suffer. So I preffer to place a compost pile above ground on a tarp or cement so the neutrients don't leak away, or in specific tubs or buckets for composting. They gather for about 3 months in the buckets with loose lids or a trough cover or a tarp over them when I water them a bit to get the process started & I wait for flying insects to disipate. Then the buckets get fed to the worm farms & leaf scraps and clippings go to the compost pile. The aged pile gets added to the older pile after the wetter fermentation phase is done. We rest for a winter without disturbing the crust. Then the next spring we start turning out into 3 successive piles. We end up with rich soil, which is also safe from pathogens. We add amendments & aged chicken or pig maneur in as well as the worm castings & other things. Trenching can work, if you know the stuff you're putting in is free of pathogens and parasites. I personally would rest it to decompose for a couple years before planting into it.

 

[Anniekay]

I have tried it & also tried composting directly into planting pots as they are recommended as low effort methods. I just didn't like them because the compost goes through a wet swampy anaerobic rot down phase which can spread pathogens from like store bought food or maneurs into the soil bed permanently. The alcohols & fermentation gets high, it gets HOT & if you plant into it too soon (an experiment I purposely did) the plants suffer. So I preffer to place a compost pile above ground on a tarp or cement so the neutrients don't leak away, or in specific tubs or buckets for composting. They gather for about 3 months in the buckets with loose lids or a trough cover or a tarp over them when I water them a bit to get the process started & I wait for flying insects to disipate. Then the buckets get fed to the worm farms & leaf scraps and clippings go to the compost pile. The aged pile gets added to the older pile after the wetter fermentation phase is done. We rest for a winter without disturbing the crust. Then the next spring we start turning out into 3 successive piles. We end up with rich soil, which is also safe from pathogens. We add amendments & aged chicken or pig maneur in as well as the worm castings & other things. Trenching can work, if you know the stuff you're putting in is free of pathogens and parasites. I personally would rest it to decompose for a couple years before planting into it.

I do the trench composting in a bed or two that I'm letting go fallow for the season and plant snap peas on it during winter, and blackeyed peas in summer. Then I turn those in and plant it for the next rotation.

So far I haven't had any issues and my sandy soil is getting better because of it

I have heard that folks with clay soil have issues because of lack of drainage and air in their soil.

 

[Mystic Moon Tree]

That makes sense. Legumes have shallow root systems and like the richness.